Little story about school education in Germany

This is a personal blog. Isn`t? - Yes. Can I write my personal opinion in my personal blog? Let me think... Of course! Should my personal opinion be somehow conform to the mainstream opinion? - I think you know the answer :)

I want to tell you one story, concerning a theme which scares me already for a long time. Don't laugh, but I want speak about school education in Germany.

Maybe you heard already about Pisa Study Results of German "Schüler"? If not, I tell you, their results are really not impressive. How it comes...? I try my explanation below.

Historically

After the WW2 in West and East Germany denazification began. Germans have done good work and succeeded in that by throwing out everything of the Third Reich[1]. Also all the education methods in the Third Reich where considered as unappropriate. I'm not an expert but can imagine that they can appear as too strict, too idealized to "frontal" for modern times. And therefore totally unappropriate for modern children. The same happened also after the "unification of Germany" in truly unification is the wrong word, West Germany incorporated East Germany.[2] And of cause education concepts of the "East-Block" (also of the enemy) where thrown out of the window, not even to look on them.

Personal Impression

If I look around and speak with my friends, who have children in school age, I gain the opinion that, the primary school is a place where children are doing everything, except of learning.

So I'm also a big friend of playing. But excuse me, if my son goes to school, I expect that he learns something there! In best case, my children should read and write and simple math after the first year in school not after the third or even fifth!

It's nothing impossible for every child! But children have to be motivated to learn, to be smart, to solve problems. I don't want to say they should be compelled to learn, it won`t have much success without motivation, but teachers and parents have to be strict with that in every case.

However, it's very difficult to be a teacher in our times, teachers have NO rights and might over their pupil, further they really believe ( because it is taught them at the university) that children can learn better without the stress of competition and without any effort and any pressure to perform at least in the beginning of the school. Bullshit! Children love to succeed, love competition. To compete, to win, to learn and to enjoy-this is their natural urge, I can see it every day, when I look at my little son. Not in everything but in a field of their interest.

Adult have to see the interests of the children and give them more and more input. Also adults has to be indicative of responsible and social behaviour. To teach children to not harm the underdog of the competition but also not harm the child's competition-motor.

But let me tell you one story of many, which finally lead me to write this article, one story I heard today.

The Story and the Questions

One friend of my wife has a child, who is at the age of 5. The girl goes to the normal German preschool everyday, where they are doing something, as I think, playing around ;) Once a week the same child also goes to a Russian preschool called "Azbuka". Now the question:
- In which language does that child read?

The Answer:
- of course in Russian!

The next question is:
What the hell are they doing at the German preschool? With the same success if not better this child could play 5 days a week at a playground?

In my opinion these children are under-cultivated by the German education system in their best years! And many parents have no time to educate children at home because they are working hardly.

P.S. I remember my first "Gymnasium" class teacher, who did laughed at me, when I talked to him that German School Education is far not the best in the world. It was few years before the first smashing Pisa Study got publicity.

I'm aware of the fact that denazification went differently in different zones, and there is some controversy about it. ↩

I'm a friend of direct speech, yes it was kind of incorporation of DDR. But hey it the best thing that could happen to DDR people at all ;) ↩